September 30

Read: Isaiah 6:1-8

I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1).

I Saw The Lord

Is it permissible to compare Isaiah’s cleansing with the experience of Christians upon whom the Holy Spirit is poured out today? We must not read too much into the experiences of these early men of God, for we know that “the Holy Ghost was not yet given” in the New Testament sense. But God here did for a man’s spirit something remarkably parallel to the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.

No place in the Old Testament do we come closer to the New Testament experience of entire sanctification than when Isaiah had this vision of God. If this was not indeed the same experience, it is a remarkably accurate preview of the glorious cleansing and empowering that came to Christ’s followers on the Day of Pentecost:

Isaiah was already a devout man of God. He was a counselor to Judah’s king and a prophet to her people. He knew how to find divine resources in the crises of life. At this critical hour in the nation’s history the young statesman came to the Temple to pray.

When we earnestly seek Him, God reveals himself in a new and fuller measure to those who already know Him. To the man who cares enough about God to seek Him in His sanctuary, God gives an added vision of himself “high and lifted up.” Those who have received the Holy Spirit in sanctifying power testify that the experience is just that kind of further and more satisfying contact with God.

Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love, One holy passion filling all my flame; The baptism of the heaven-descended Dove, My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

— Hymns of the Living Faith